A known roof apparatus for a vehicle is disclosed in JP2002-154328A (which will be hereinafter referred to as Reference 1). The roof apparatus disclosed in Reference 1 includes shoe members provided to be movable in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle along respective guide rails provided at both edges of an opening portion in a width direction of the vehicle, the opening portion being formed at a roof portion of a vehicle body of the vehicle. The roof apparatus also includes support members supporting a movable panel for opening and closing the opening portion. A front edge portion and a rear edge portion of each of the support members are connected to the corresponding guide rail and the shoe member, respectively. In a case where the shoe members move in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the movable panel is opened and closed accordingly.
As illustrated in FIG. 8, each of the shoe members includes a plate member 91 made of steel plate and a body portion 92 made of resin. The plate member 91 including an engagement hook portion 91a to which a driving force is transmitted is embedded by insert molding in the body portion 92 including a sliding portion 92a sliding on the corresponding guide rail. Therefore, a resin mold process may be complicated because of a complex mold, which may lead to an increase of manufacturing man-hours and cost.
A need thus exists for a roof apparatus for a vehicle which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.